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Swan Song
Swan Song All was well in , a small village located within the just south of . Women accompanied by their children armed the markets, while the men instead opted for a bit of profit; one such case being an open dumpling shop that flooded with grumbling stomachs around the time of day the sun shone through from behind the clouds. Seated by himself in one corner was a cloaked individual who allowed a hood to mask the vast majority of his facial identity, all the while his hands tended to a bowl of the restaurant's yummies. He ate at his leisure as the time passed along by him, seemingly without a care despite the rather anti-social vibe he was giving off. It was often the occasion that Sannoto found himself in the farmlands of the Land of Fire. It was there that he found the best hotsprings, and in his youth they hosted the best women for hire. Thus, when he appeared before the village it was no surprise, and it was for this reason that he was the perfect candidate for the mission that he was assigned to. For years, Konoha had spent their resources calculating, accumulating the data they needed to track one of their missing-nin, and it was through their efforts they pinpointed his whereabouts to this small village. Though Sannoto had long retired from his affairs as a shinobi, there were times that he was asked to participate in certain affairs. This time, it was more of a demand; his services garnered his release from his Sayuri Uchiha's space-time domain where he had spent weeks trapped in endless genjutsu. They had an on and off relationship most of the time. Once he stepped foot into the village, his target's location was as easy as navigating to the women's bath-house to the Senju, and it took him only a matter of minutes to reach the restaurant that the Hyūga had been dining. "Teizen," his voice echoed, drawing the attention of the employees, and customers. "You're in this restaurant, and I would ask in the name of Konohagakure, you come out and surrender yourself." Sannoto looked directly at the hooded figure. "I wouldn't have expected you to have been so out in the open to be honest, but, then again, I don't think you expected to have been found here," he continued. "Now, please come. I promise you that you'll get a fair trial." With one quick glance through his hood, Teizen stood up from his seat to leave immediately, stuffing into his mouth the final dumpling that had been left in his bowl. All without uttering a single word, he left through an alternate exit, until his frame meshed away into the surrounding crowd of the market square. He made no attempt in concealing his chakra signature, however, which was blatantly foreign against that of the village's natives. Was he running away? Was he truly this much of a coward? Perhaps frantically, he cut through the ensuing storm of people and continued down the street, knowing full well his pursuer to be hot on his tail. An orb of chakra leaked from the pores of his toes, and in the blink of an eye, Sannoto had disappeared from his place. When he reconstituted into reality, he stood directly in front of the Hyūga man. "Please," Sannoto sighed, "I'm an old man, now. I don't have the energy to chase you across this village." His large frame encapsulated Teizen in his shadow. "Just, stop and come with me, 'kay?" His fingers tracing the brim of his hood, Teizen welcomed the warmth of the sunlight onto his face. Long black hair falling down his backside; fair skin enchanting his visage; but most important of all, pale white eyes that rang with the murder of loved ones... yes, there was little doubt that this was the instigator of one of the more recent terrors that had plagued Konoha. By all means, the stereotypical aptitude of the Hyūga clung to his flesh; for this reason, manly heralded him as a look alike of the late and famed Neji Hyūga. Yet there was more to him than met the eye: faced with what most would deem his demise, the young lad actually bore a grin on his face. "'The Perverted Metal Seeker of Peace'," Teizen started, the words easing off his lips like butter, "to think you of all people would be deployed to chase after a lowly Chūnin such as myself. I don't know if I should be honored or afraid." He gave out a faint chuckle. "Why not a little of both, am I right?" His eyes uplifted to meet with that of the monster. Standing in his shadow alone was nearly suffocating him. Veins bulged out from the sides of his face, creeping close and aligning firmly around his eyes as he activated his Byakugan. He would need it from the get-go, of that he was certain. From such a distance, Teizen was able to quickly assess his opponent. Not that he was able to determine anything he hadn't already known of, however; the man was a living legend. Teizen had been brought to study his life during his day's at the academy. Hell, even to this very day, he greatly admired him. Yet, never would he have expected to meet him under such conditions. With trained reflex, Teizen unveiled a paper-tag from his sleeve and tossed it Sannoto's way, watching as it covered the small gap that existed between them in a moment's notice. Then, as it made to detonate of its own accord, he began to retreat backward, hoping to create a fraction of breathing room. "Teizen," Sannoto shrieked as a wave of flames erupted in his face spreading a smog of fire and smoke around the Senju. Leaping from the maelstrom of Teizen's attack clad in a armor of steel, Sannoto's left arm, dragging behind him as he exploded forward, rebuking the smoke around his body, and repelling the very air that supported his massive frame, encased itself in an aura of chakra. Speed, precision, wit; before the Byakugan, it was all the same. Teizen could read and comprehend Sannoto's movements perhaps even better than he could himself, when considering that the fact that Teizen was allowed with a far greater line of sight than most others; yes, while Sannoto was limited physically to his two eyes, Teizen by comparison could see all around him at once. It was this advantage in itself that could essentially make all the difference in the world. With Sannoto rushing toward him, Teizen had but many options made available to him. Of course, coming into contact with that fist of his was the not exactly the most permissible of them all... then again, touching him at all in itself was a greatly ill-advised. The story of the boy who had turned the rest of his class --teacher included-- into metal: was it a myth?; was it a legend? coulō,d there be truth to such a story? Teizen knew full well that Sannoto planned to end this fight as quickly as he possibly could. He was baiting him in by coming into close range --his range. But Teizen wasn't going to fall for it so easily. Still, Taijutsu was Teizen's specialty. And for that, he was going to need to somehow bypass that metal armor so as not to lose his arm the very moment he made contact with a punch. Luckily, at his expense, Teizen had rightfully explored the depths of the Lightning Release. Metal being a product of the Earth Release --Earth naturally being weak to Lightning-- would work to his immediate favor. Generating a spark of lightning in his hand, Teizen curled his arm about and flailed his body forward, seeking to intercept Sannoto's own fist. Yet, he did not look to match it with his own strength --no, that would have been silly. Instead, he looked to pierce through where the metal was the weakest in his fist, which would cause the rest of the armor around the entirety of the arm to shatter and chip away, leaving Sannoto's defense open for assault. "Bring it on, Old Man!" Sannoto smirked as he witnessed the spark of electricity flow from Teizen's hand. A man of his age and wisdom knew full well that lightning was a counter to his own technique. If he didn't, how could he consider himself worthy of the title of a master of his respective kekkei genkai. Yet, he continued in his line of direction without consideration of the attack flailing towards him. Though his metal-prowess was a well-known ability, its origins of how he obtained it remained particularly unknown. Was it a mutation of his grandfather's wood release? Did his wield the powers of the legendary Metal Release? In truth, Sannoto only had one deity to thank for his powers, and aside from himself, it was Tai, whom to the rest of the world simply didn't exist. Even the child's byakugan wouldn't be able to delve into such a creature. Though, similarly, Teizen's byakugan remained unaware of the naturally laced in Sannoto's own chakra, by extension encapsulating every bit of his body to extend the range of his attack in every direction. Long before Teizen's fist would make contact with any bit of Sannoto, the shroud of natural energy would slam against his body with the same force that the Senju struck with. Aiming to Please Indeed, even the Byakugan was rendered obsolete when matters pertained to Natural Energy; because it was not entirely chakra, Teizen was not able to see it visually. However yet, as his was molded from --a Kekkei Genkai which revolved around the basis of passively absorbing Natural Energy-- to say Teizen had some deal of experience in identifying Natural Energy was an understatement. Still, he hadn't expected Sannoto to employ it the way he had. Caught off guard, Teizen found himself flying backward after being hammered by Sannoto's make-shift shied of natural energy, only to hit the ground with equal force and spin about several times. Sitting up quickly, Teizen wiped the blood from his lip. That sensation just now... yes, there was no doubting it. He had become over reliant upon his eyes, and as a result, he had been made into a fool. And even while he could not exactly see it, there was little doubting it now that the old man was employing Natural Energy as his weapon. "I see," Teizen said, standing up to his feet, "to think you'd be able to orchestrate Natural Energy in such a manner... really speaks volumes of your expertise. You'll have to forgive me, this is the first time I've been matched up against an opponent of your caliber. From here on out, I do hope I will not fail to please." Retaking his stance, an ominous chakra began to overtake Teizen's ordinary signature. "But I," Sannoto started to whine, though further thought caused him to discontinue his thoughts. It was pointless talking to children of this era, who were so inspired by the words of the and his story to claim the seat of the Fire Shadow despite the odds he faced and the malice he suffered, that they rarely listened to reason or to their elders. Regardless, it was the truth that Sannoto had not even tapped into a fraction of his power, though such was often the case. Unlike this era, or even the Seventh's time, the children of Sannoto's years were born into combat. There were few who remained, and thus few who could boast the sheer experience that he could. Though, there was often one man who came to his thoughts that even outlived him, and it was that man today who was responsible for the powers that this child was about to display. "I'm surprised Orochimaru is still up to his tricks," Sannoto started, pulling a scroll from the inner robe, and in a fluid motion he unleashed a broadsword comparable to his own stature. "Though, it's a reason that he's died before and I haven't," the Senju clicked his tongue in amusement of his own joke. Resting the blade on his shoulder with one arm, Sannoto gestured to Teizen with the other. "Allow me to show you that reason, child," he spat. With that, his arm swung forward commanding the very sword itself to leap from his shoulder in a similar motion; a slice of chakra erupted from the metals of the Sugari no Ontachi, channeling the very power of nature around it to increase its range just as it did before. Once again Teizen's Byakugan puckered, absorbing the contents of what transpired before it. Just like before, the incoming attack bore too much of a resemblance to that very sensation Teizen knew all too well. Natural Energy. Again. This was likely to become a routine for the Senju; and from a battle perspective, could he really be blamed? Why exhaust your own chakra reserves when the environment was ready to do your bidding? It was an advantage that would claim Sannoto as the victor, should the battle drag on to a longer duration. It was without a doubt something that needed to be corrected before long. And fortunately so, when it came to Natural Energy, two could play at that game. "Orochimaru?" Teizen repeated to himself. He didn't recall ever mentioning the name of his former mentor. The man must have caught on to his plans by way of his ominous chakra signature. In any case, it would be through the aid of his former mentor that Teizen closed the gap between he and Sannoto. "You are mistaken in your thinking of my relation to Orochimaru. I believe him to be nothing more than a washed up old hag foolishly testing the throttles of Father Time. Like you he is many years past his heydey, yet refuses to defer to the next era. Just how many generations have you yourself dismissed due to your own selfishness?" Crackled black lines spewed out from beneath Teizen's forehead protector, quickly overtaking his face before spreading out to laminate the rest of his body. "Your time to make an impact to this world ended long ago, Old Man. Unlike you, I don't plan on leaving behind an empty legacy. Nay, I've much yet to accomplish before I bite the dust!" Clapping his hands together, the boy released an able amount of chakra from a number of his tenketsu, which laced around, clipping together pieces of Natural Energy to ward off the incoming sword attack. However, the chakra was very clearly not of his own breed, but rather resembled that of Orochimaru, and by extension, the sort that Sannoto himself had mangled with earlier. The slice of chakra from Sannoto's sword was thrown off its indented course and paid its part in destroying a nearby building. Teizen eyed the destruction from a distance. "War. Destruction. You are no different." He turned to the pervert. "You'd go to the extents of destroying this entire village if it meant completing your mission, right? You shinobi from Konoha are all the same!" In a flurry of blurred lines, Teizen vanished from plain sight. He moved about at staggering speeds, the likes of which Sannoto simply could not track with ordinary eyes. And while it was true that he could still sense out the boy, certain factors would have kept his body from matching the speed with his own. For, the man was old, and even beyond it, he was much larger than Teizen. No matter his amount of strength, lugging about that sword and having to compensate for its shortcomings was likely to take its toll when it came to responding and reacting accordingly. Out of the two of them, Teizen was the smaller man, the lighter man, the taijutsu master. For all Sannoto was worth, there was but one immediate advantage that was to Teizen's favor: and that was his speed, which he planned to use to his complete advantage. Circling around Sannoto, Teizen's swift movements caused the dirt from the ground to round up in the form of a cyclone. And then, just when he least expected it, the boy appeared beneath him, his leg darting up to deliver a lightning-infused kick to Sannoto's chin that would have sent him, even with all the mass he amounted, flying upward. It was often the case where Sannoto could not simply keep up with his opponents. Despite his strength, it often meant nothing should he be incapable of striking them, and it was a tale that of the Leaf introduced to him at every occasion. Although the boy possessed a speed unmatched by the elder Senju, his paled heavily in comparison to the spoken former hokage, and it was this technique that Sannoto devised especially for that man. Waves of silver-chakra violently leaked from his flesh, shaking the very earth as it escaped the Senju's massive frame. "Plummeting! Heavens!," he shrieked as the chakra took form in a circle with his body serving as the radius. The rocks around him rose, and then in the same moment, they slammed deep into the rocky-terrain. Unless Teizen himself possessed any chakra-nullifying abilities in the heat of his attack, he too would have found his momentum nullified and his teeth filled with the cement that he stood on. Chakra nullification was not necessary when one could simply withstand the brutality of the technique. While it most certainly took a toll on Teizen's body, Sannoto's chakra wasn't nearly enough on its own to force the boy down along with the rocks, especially not after he had activated the first stage of his cursed seal. There was a moment of hesitation where Teizen's movements appeared to have slowed down; then, within the next moment, they returned to their peak, adjusting to the newly refined pressures of Sannoto's chakra. His leg flailed, springing to life as it made contact with Sannoto's chin, sending a spark of electricity through his body and more than likely launching him into the air. The sheer force of the Hyuga's kick propelled Sannoto's massive frame from the earth itself, a feat that only his mother to this date has been consistently capable of doing. The lightning-chakra itself entered his body, and immediately was absorbed into his metallic bones rendering the rest of his body safe from its wrath. The cling of his steel bones would have been satisfying if Sannoto's momementum hadn't been suddenly stopped. Again, unbeknown to most people, the Sannoto could manipulate his own skeletal structure within his own body, since it was made of steel, and subsequently control the motion of his own body, allowing him to take off instantly, or even stop on the dime should he require it. Though, almost as quickly as he had been stopped, his sword swung in the same motion as it did before, and yielding the same result a wave of potent chakra dripped off of the edge of the sword towards Teizen. Aerial Supremacy Upon successfully raising his opponent into the air, Teizen had planned to unleash a followup attack, if not for Sannoto's sudden rebound. Much to Teizen's surprise, the Senju had somehow stopped in midair, a feat that even to his eyes looked nothing short of an illusion. He was able to fly, by the look of things, and just as Teizen had leaped from the ground to chase after him, Sannoto fired off another wave of chakra from his broadsword. In most cases, a person in Teizen's situation would be stuck, locked in free-fall. However yet, the Hyūga had honed his body to an entirely separate level when compared to even the greatest of taijutsu masters, which allowed him to make a solid out of virtually any medium, even the air itself. Treating the air as a malleable substance, Teizen used it as a platform to kick off of, allowing him to evade the wave of chakra that was released from Sannoto's sword just in the nick of time. Kicking at the air beneath him repeatedly, Teizen leveled himself with the flying Sannoto, yet was careful to have maintained some distance between he and his opponent. "You surprised me there," Teizen admitted, "I didn't expect you to be able to recover so quickly... not while in the air, at least. Looks like I'll have to go about this another way." "You too, actually," Sannoto praised. "I can't believe you...how can you even do that? Kick off the air? That's truly unbelievable. I can't understand why you would waste such a talent on trying to bring down the leaf, but, I can't even possibly begin to understand what really occurred. I only know as much as my daughter told me," Sannoto admitted. For the past few years, he was away from the village, and it was during that time away where he met his daughter who decided it'd be a grand idea to trap him in her dimension for an extended period of time. Obviously, he loved her, but out of his two children he was currently leaning towards his youngest for the child-of-the-month award. "So, what did you do?" "You mean you truly don't know?" The veins on the sides of Teizen's face tightened even further. "How characteristic of a Leaf shinobi: simply doing as you're told without the slightest of opinion of your own on the matter. You're more of a robot in that case than you are a ninja. "If you really must know, what I did was serve my clan, serve my village, serve my country: tirelessly and obediently. And what did I get in return? Betrayal." Teizen curled his hand into a fist as the memories came back to him. "I grew tired of the ways were; with nothing more than my time of birth dictating my status within the clan, within the entirety of the village, I was given no means of progression. No matter how hard I worked, it could and would amount to nothing. There was but one future ahead of me, and that was to serve the Main Branch of the Hyūga Clan like some sort of pet. Complying without hesitation to each and everyone of their desires, no matter how cruel, knowing full well that if any of them went unnoticed, I may as well lose my life within the very next moment." He brought his fist before him. "With a future to pave for myself, I did whatever was necessary to achieve my freedom. And that is how I present myself to you as here today: a free man! Never again will I allow anyone to dictate who I am or what I can be. If you aim to charge me with the so-called crime I have committed, then I'd happily die rather than return back to my previous life. At least the fires of hell will be better on my skin than those accursed leaves." "Oh, you're a side-branch Hyūga," Sannoto chuckled amusingly. "You really do resemble , in face and will. Though, he wasn't as rebellious as you," he continued, sliding his sword onto his back, and into its sheathe. "I always told the village to be weary of how those ridiculous hierarchies. They were eventually bound to cause trouble, and now they have." Sannoto gave Teizen a pointed look. "Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be kept by understanding. That is where both you, and the main branch failed to understand," he lectured. "You decided to take what you believed to be yours, disregarding whomever would be affected in the process. Yet, here you are with all your reputation and freedom, feeling no wiser than when you left home. Truth is kid, when you turn around, to see the course you've run, notice that there is not one man or woman that you love standing beside you." "Again, I applaud your efforts to better the lives of the side-branch, but it was ultimately your malice for their inhumanity that led you astray. When time passes, it are not the actions of the villains that people truly remember, but the words of the heroes that opposed them. At the center of non-violence is the principle of love, child." Sannoto smiled. "This is why I will teste your mettle. Let's see whose will Is stronger, the genius of the Senju, or the prisoner to the Hyūga," Sannoto spoke, conjuring enormous supplies of potent chakra from his stomach. In a single furious shriek, it all escaped his mouth in a powerful shockwave that rebuked the clouds themselves as it headed with extreme velocity towards the child. Strength of a Thousand Widened white eyes that encapsulated mayhem as a living; even in all their glory, they hadn't ever witnessed such an atrocious chakra! What in the world was this man? This chakra... was it even human?! Without enough time to think, Teizen shielded himself with his arms and found himself bracing for impact. He held on for his dear life, as the massive surge of energy collided with his feeble frame, knocking him many ways backward. Clenching his teeth, he fought to hold back the blast, but as he felt himself losing the battle, he managed to garner enough of a force in his feet to shimmer out of comprehension. With a single glance backward, he watched as the blast erupted down below, consuming a number of homes. It was then that it occurred to him that this man he was fighting was no man at all. No, he was a monster of some kind, who had at his disposal the ability to effortlessly unleash attacks of such an inconceivable magnitude. If he had any chance of winning this fight, then he was going to need to match that awesome fire power. He was going to need to fight fire with fire. Kicking at the air, Teizen bounced around, before lowering to settle down on the roof of a nearby house. He allowed himself with a moment of thinking time, letting out a calm breath. And that was it. With such a minimal procedure, Teizen, seeing as though his opponent had finally gotten around to being serious, had released the limiters behind his strength by opening the very first gate within his mind. Now, there was nothing more holding him back. His true strength, his true will, his true power, it was all unleashed. In conjunction with the Byakugan, he felt as though all the truths of the universe had become visible to him; for he had merged with the world itself, becoming one with it. And then, he vanished. As plainly as that, without leaving behind any sort of marking, without giving any sort of indication behind his movement, he simply disappeared, silencing even the chains of sound as he seemingly warped himself behind Sannoto. Making use of the element of surprise and his newly found power, he aimed to unleash his wrath upon the Senju by striking him consecutively, over and over and over, with the sort of strength that would have made that of the great Tsunade pale in comparison. With such strength and precision that he would have brought great honor to the name of the Hyūga --had he any further care for such a motive-- and likely broken through the metallic armor that Sannoto was wearing with strict ease, to deal damage to his true inner being. "The eight-" Sannoto expressed excitingly before his own senses interrupted him. He felt Teizen's motion as he made it. The man surged throughout the air with remarkable precision, and speed, and although such motion was made visible to Sannoto, his body was physically unable to respond. Though, what was made visible to him, was shared with Tai, and it was often that combination of consciousnesses that fought together. Surely, they were surprised by ths speed of Teizen. Afterall, having never encountered his power, especially when using the eight gates, there was no possible way he could have deduced his feats. The question was then, why was he so uncareful? The instant that Teizen struck Sannoto's metal armor, the force of the blow itself shattered the steel upon his back. Though, right underneath it was another set of armour, and when Teizen struck that again, another layer was awaiting. Despite his bodies inability to directly oppose Teizen's strength, his control over his own chakra only increased as he grew in age. The ability to feel and manipulate his potent reserves has been his strength in the past few decades, and this battle was no different. The instant that Teizen moved, Sannoto begun building extra layers of his metallic armour underneath of the layers present, and even has Teizen was striking his armor, he continued repairing. The Eight Gates was a technique that increased strength temporarily, but at the expense of the body. Sannoto's best bet was to simply wait it out. Halting in his assault, Teizen threw his right fist backward. The muscles comprising the arm jolted, pumping and inflating with newly refined power. So much so that it began to tremble under the might, bolstering the strength of a thousand fists into one. The idea was simple: forgo his clan's gentle approach to make for a more explosive delivery. With this one blow, Teizen looked to plow through every layer Sannoto could have crafted to reach inside the cocoon and splatter the caterpillar. Teizen's punch ripped through the metal cocoon, as he thought of it, that Sannoto showered his body with allowing him to finally reach the spongy flesh, yet it wasn't spongy at all. The skin, fortified by the Senju's own "Unbreakable Bones of Steel", as he dubbed it himself, was equally as hard as the armor he encased himself with. By the time Teizen's own punch tore through the armour, the only thing that Sannoto could argue he felt was the concussive force that sent him plummeting, not towards, but into the earth. He tore through the rocky-terrain, sending a mushroom cloud of smog and dust into the air. The cloud ripped throughout the town, engulfing the citizens in its might and forcing them onto their knees. In the heat of it all, the towering Senju climbed from the depths of the pit itself, unscathed with the exception of his torn robe that rendered the remainder of his shirt useless. Without haste, he ripped it off, tossing its sparkling nature to the side. He formed three handseals, and removed his pulled his sword from his back. Then, in an act of herculean strength, he leaped from the earth itself, forcing the very rock to bend like a wave in an ocean, and with haste he tore through the smog and atmosphere to strike the flying Teizen with his blade. Kicking at the air to stay afloat, Teizen couldn't help but appreciate the toll his last attack had on not only the Senju, but the village as a whole. Not that he had anything against the rest of them, but grounding Sannoto, a legend that he had grown up truthfully admiring was a testament to how far he had come since leaving Konohagakure. A smug grin came to his face. His blood boiled, his heart quaked, and his muscles swelled with the excitement of battle. There was something about this all that felt so good to Teizen inside. He wanted more of it... yes, much more of it! He wanted to see the man that had been sent to capture him to return a empty handed, and most of all, for the legend to disappoint the very village that had grown to respect him. Observing Sannoto's figure as it soared through the skies en route to his own position, Teizen readied himself for action. The same ominous chakra that his body had emitted in releasing the first stage of the Cursed Seal of Earth returned to his figure, only in far greater amounts. Clapping his hands together, Teizen caught the broadsword between them and, utilizing his strength that now greatly exceeded Sannoto's own --even despite the presence of the peace seeker's respectable metallic prowess-- he ensured a firm lock over it, so as to prevent Sannoto from being able to flee without a fight, before sending an electrical shock from his hands through the blade and to Sannoto himself to further immobilize him. And just then, just as Sannoto may have expected the worse to have already come, two additional set of arms --totally six when accounting for the original two holding the blade in-place-- latched out from Teizen's rib-cage, each invigorated by the release of his cursed seal and inner gate. One such punch had caused Sannoto to fall many a ways into the ground; now, he was going to be hammered by the very same punch, only consecutively, and it was going to be delivered to him by four fists at once as opposed to one. Laughing maniacally to himself as he exerted the efforts in attacking Sannoto several hundreds of times within the span of a few seconds, Teizen beamed out, "Hahaha! What do you think? Makes the Eight Trigrams pale in comparison, doesn't it?! How does it taste, old man?!" As he did previously, Teizen looked to get through every defense Sannoto may have transcribed to his person, so as to finally deal the man some actual damage. The rate at which he was firing off attacks should have been faster than the rate at which Sannoto could have transmutated any further chakra, or so he hoped. The range of his attack was precisely aiming for key points in Sannoto's figure, darting from his face down to his groin. History Revisited: Double Trouble Sannoto's heart raced, though, instead with excitement, it was with a sort of known fear that he had come to embrace. It was always taught that a shinobi should come only to fear the state of fear itself, but the Senju remembered the times on the battlefield when such philosophy actually came to use, and a majority of the time when it did it often ended with the person's death. So, Sannoto wasn't much of a fan. A second later, blood fell from his lips as one of the punches connected, and then another, and then another. It could have all been over should he had let go of the sword, yet, he remained, resilient, refusing to bow to Teizen. It was obvious he wanted Sannoto to release the sword, but the Senju was hell-bent on holding it. Yet, in it all, it was then that his arms simply gave out. "Wha-?" He cried out, before being interrupted by the hearth beneath him. His, muscular frame struck against the earth only seconds after his descent, though, with the pain he suffered from those punches, falling a couple hundred feet was almost nothing. Regardless, he struggled to his feet, panting heavily as he looked up at the maniac in the sky. "Man," he started, wiping the blood from the edges of his lips. "I really..," a cough slid into his sentence, "underestimated the kid." His held his trembling hands up to view them. "It hurts just to lift them," he deduced, "Is this....what it feels like to have....your chakra points blocked?" Another cough jumped into his sentence, and what it brought with it was a pool of blood. "Tai," he muttered, "I-I need some help." He looked up at Teizen flying in the sky. "I didn't take him seriously enough, Tai. I didn't think he'd be this strong, and now," he looked around him. The people gasping from the dust, the children crying, everything. "he's hurting innocent people, Tai. Please, give me your chakra." A commanding presence flushed over Sannoto's body as a spur of chakra enveloped his body. His eyes intensified as the spirit's will empowered him. "Listen here," his voice echoed, overlapped with that of Tai's own. It was a woman's voice underneath, akin to that of a princess. "I'll kill you, before I let you destroy this village anymore." As his will became more resolute, his chakra continued to spike in comparison. A black substances leaked from his pores, moving onto his wounds, healing them as it touched it. The bruises he had, the torn skin, it all disappeared as the substance touched it. To the average person, such a force was invisible, all except Sannoto. To them, it was a mysterious power said to have ben inherited from his mother, but to Sannoto, the substance itself was none except his partner, Tai. Using the lapse between Sannoto's descent to his advantage, Teizen scurried for every gasp of fresh air he could possibly could. After the departure was when he had come to realize that the broadsword was, no, had been stealing bits of chakra from him. Panting hard, Teizen brought himself to squeeze at the sword from both sides with greater force than before, effectively grinding the weapon to dust with his awesome strength. Out of his former respect for the legend, he allowed for the remains of the sword to fall from his hands, down together with Sannoto, lowering himself to the ground afterwards. With a look toward his opponent, Teizen confirmed that he had successfully shut down each and every one of Sannoto's tenketsu, thereby rendering him incapable of molding chakra any further. Together with the degree of injuries he had amounted, he looked to be done for. Defusing his Byakugan, he declared the battle over. As Sannoto drew blood, Teizen found pleasure in his state of panic. "You look like a man who hasn't ever seen his own blood," Teizen chimed, "I once heard your mother too grew tense at the sight of it. How unfortunate; it must run in your family. "Tell me, how does it feel? To bleed after such a long time... I'm sure you haven't found a worthy opponent who could have pushed you to the brink like this in quite awhile, let alone be able to scathe your real flesh. That sensation, surely it's nostalgic?" Teizen touched his hand to his lip, spreading the blood from before onto his fingers. "This," Teizen continued, curling the hand into a fist before his eyes, "this is the sort of world we live in today. All because of ." The very thought of them angered him. Veins bulged out on the sides of his face, with his Byakugan activating itself once more. "But they couldn't think nor care any less of us. Can't you see it? They think themselves better than all of us, simply because of whom they were born to! Why, why in our world does that single factor dictate so very much?" Teizen thought back to his own circumstance, of how he had been designated into the Branch House of the Hyūga Clan. How his fate had been sealed for him. Teizen had himself interrupted by Sannoto's own monologue. Teizen had heard once before that the old often thought aloud; but seriously? To this extent? No, hold on just a second. Teizen's eyes flexed, his veins twitched. Was he seeing things? What the hell was that thing in front of Sannoto? The boy was at a loss for words, and his heart nearly skipped a beat, both out of shock and because of the serious toll the eight inner gates were taking on his body when Sannoto made to speak --that wasn't the voice he remembered. Still, nothing angered Teizen as much as to see Sannoto's injuries disappear. All that work... gone in the fraction of an instant. "I see. So that hideous creature is the true source of all your power. Which means..." He clenched his teeth in an uproar. Something within his mind snapped suddenly, for a second time. "WHICH MEANS... you're just like the rest of them!! "Just like them, you had everything handed to you from the beginning! Just like them, you were gifted by the gods upon your birth! Just like them, you had it all from the start!" Teizen's chakra surged around him in response to Sannoto's own, growing all the more potent by the second. "JUST LIKE THEM, JUST LIKE THEM!!" A crater gave way beneath Teizen's feet. His muscles tensed further, ripping off the rest of his shirt. Standing his ground, Teizen flexed with all six of his arms, the exhaustion from before leaving him almost entirely. Oddly, despite his anger, as well as every cell in his body telling him to dash forward, the boy remained idle. "Shut the hell up, Kid!" the Senju retorted. A powerful chakra flowed through his veins as he spoke. "I've never once seen anyone," Sannoto panted, though as he continued his speech his pants became less frequent, "Who preaches about forging their own path, complain about the path that others already have." By the end of his sentence, his breath had returned, his wounds healed, his power exponentially multiplied. This was the power that he had utilized in his youth, the same power that caused him to kill his classmates, the one that drove him further away from his villagers and parents. The same power that only became conscious after the death of his friend, but most of all, the power that caused his own father to wield him as a weapon for war. "What about that power, God, gave you huh?" Sannoto pointed towards his Byakugan. "Those eyes you wield, and for some reason, those eyes that let you see my power," he continued, taking a step towards Teizen. "You're the only one whose ever had the pleasure to see Tai, other than myself. I don't entirely understand why, but THAT means something!" He took another step in Teizen's direction. "So, I won't give in here. Not until I make you understand what I mean." Assuming his stance, which he dubbed Santashi—a stance in which he holds his head, torso, and feet along the same vertical plane, with his left arm held out, his palm facing his opponent, and with his right arm spread across the bottom portion of his abdomen—Sannoto gestured the child Teizen to come forth. "Enough of the games. If you lived in the era in which I lived, the way you are now, you would have quickly saw your life extinguished. So, come. Let me show you how big the world really is." "I didn't expect you to understand. I don't know why I even bother wasting my words on you, but I'll tell you once more," Teizen said, still not having budged an inch from his earlier position, "you and I are of a completely separate breed. We differ in the sense that while I squander aimlessly, knowing naught what the future may hold for me, your path was instead written from the day you were born. Love. Happiness. Success. How does it feel to have so much, yet to have worked so little? You disgust me." Teizen believed himself a taijutsu master, yet he eyed Sannoto's stance curiously, never having once seen the benefit in such a style. Just what was the old man hoping to accomplish? Much like with Sannoto, Teizen's body was feeling much better than in moments prior. As a matter of fact, Teizen couldn't have felt any better; his own wounds, complete with the strain that had been placed onto his body from his own reckless antics, was by now completely null. "So you want me to come to you, eh? Challenging a Hyūga to a close quarters battle... careful what you ask for, old man!" Taking up the sacred style of the Hyūga, merged with the vessel of Orochimaru, and the gates of a supreme martial artist, Teizen dashed forward, his eyes sparring him the dangers of running blindly into danger. The Beauty of Taijutsu Empowering himself with his own potent chakra, Sannoto dashed forward, allowing the amount and quality of his chakra to serve as a monitor for his own. As he exploded forward, he crossed his hands over his body in the intent to block, yet, as he did, a wall of natural energy shot forward with him. And Teizen in turn recognized the wall of natural energy from before as he came within range of the guarding Sannoto. He wasn't going to play this game again. As he neared the man, Teizen's accursed arms actually fed off of the natural energy that Sannoto had supplied them, bulking up even further. The reason for this was simple: the cursed seals were fashioned after Jugo's Clan's Kekkei Genkai, and yes, while in times past Orochimaru himself had been unable to reciprocate the effects of the Kekkei Genkai on his own completely, choosing to supply those he deemed worthy of his seal with his own chakra, times had changed. The cursed seal had gone through additional decades of further advancement; carefully, Orochimaru had repolished its framework, accomplishing quite the --Teizen was but one of these exceptions. His cursed seal, much to his approval, relied less on Orochimaru and more on his own genius. Charging through the barrier of natural energy Sannoto had created, there was nothing more holding Teizen back from the Metal Seeker of Peace. As the man threw up his guard, Teizen wrapped his arms --all six of them-- around the large man, making use of his awesome strength to actually lift him off of his feet. "You'd be a dead man if it weren't for that 'Tai' of yours," Teizen mused, fastening his arms around Sannoto into a lock, ridding the man of any further chances of escape, "I wonder, can it be killed?" A devilish grin appeared on Teizen's face. "It can, can't it? After all, it's only chakra! Now, I wonder, what would happen if I were to take it all from you?" Tightening his hold behind Sannoto's back, Teizen's real hands surfaced the , which took the initiative of draining the man of his chakra. His primary obligation was to ensure that the hold he had around Sannoto was tight even to prevent him from opening his mouth. He didn't seek an answer as much as he did a certain result. With his arms constantly absorbing chakra --both natural and majestic-- there was a great chance Teizen would lose first his sanity, then his life, by way of exploding from an over-consumption of chakra. But that was when the precise control over his tenketsu came in handy; the chakra entering his body came one way, and went out another. Even in the eyes of adversity, the only thing that Sannoto could do was smirk. If the man had allowed him to speak, he would've been informed that Tai and Sannoto were two minds sharing the same soul. Long before their encounter, the two had been fused together, and it was there combined soul. Simply "absorbing" Tai, while entirely possible, would be a much harder feat than he anticipated. Yet, even then, that was not the cause for his amusement. His chakra was dangerous, not for the Senjutsu, not even for the fact that his will was infused into it, but because it could turn a man themselves into gold. When it made contact with physical matter, it would convert it, and though Teizen was pushing it back out of his body, there was no doubt that as it passed into his body and through a specific tenketsu, his inner organs themselves were being exposed to this horrendous aura, but before it all, his chakra circulatory system itself found itself introduced to the corrosive chakra. The eight gates was responsible for revitalizing his body, but whether or not it was capable of repairing such damage on the inside was an unknown. Though, Sannoto was certain that it took time. The man's injuries took time to heal, and in that interval it would be all over. All he had to do was speed up that process. Without physical movements he proved capable of interacting and manipulating his own steel skeleton, albeit his ability to fly. In the same process, his steel skeleton expanded from his own flesh, and outwards towards Teizen, with one specifically aimed for the head, for that was the position of the specific gate he had unlocked. Stopping himself from shrieking with the pain of Sannoto's skeleton jabbing into his own flesh, Teizen only tightened his hold around the large man. Blood spewed all over them both, the sweat and tears they had accumulated over the battle mixing in along with it. "I-I see," he panted, "so there was truth to the legend after all. It really was a mistake to touch you." Teizen's eyes flexed, his muscles strained even further. His skin began to turn red, and though Sannoto couldn't see it the way Teizen could, the large sums of blood he had just lost were promptly being restored within the insides of Teizen's body. "No matter! The body of a ninja is but a mere tool; a weapon of war! A practitioner of the Eight Gates knows this all too well; if my sacrificing my body makes certain of your death, then it's a small price to pay!" With a slight bend in the knees, Teizen burst into the skies, taking Sannoto along with him. "GATE OF LIFE, OPEN!" he hollered, ascending higher and higher into the air until he reached a point in which any human would have struggled with their breath. Teizen's legs wrapped around Sannoto's waist, hoisting him within an inescapable four layer lock. "No defense can withstand an attack such as this," Teizen declared, "that much I can assure you!" Flipping himself around with Sannoto, Teizen dove down to make toward the ground headfirst. Midway through his descent, he began to spin, and spin, and spin, until the end result was a massive tornado that encapsulated the entirety of the village. With such blinding speed, Teizen shifted Sannoto beneath him as they met the ground, slamming the Senju with incomprehensible strength, force, and power, that it would have almost certainly leveled every defense that he could have ever thought of. "FRONT LOTUS: EIGHT TRIGRAMS REVOLVING HEAVEN!!!" The cloud that formed this time around made the one from before --that had been the result of a single one of Teizen's fists-- pale in comparison. The soaring winds and pressure that had forced around toppled nearly every building within several miles of the area, converting what was once a village into a barren wasteland. Blown away by the mass of forces, citizens of Kisaragi were given free tickets to Konohagakure as they were carried off by the wind. Into the Pits of Hell But the devastation caused by the attack didn't stop there. Even upon hitting the ground, Teizen plunged Sannoto through several additional layers of the earth's crust, traveling through innumerable caves at a time, until a large pool of magma became visible after plummeting tens of miles deep. At which point Teizen was forced to let the man go in exchange for his own safety. Flinging Sannoto downward, in the direction of the lava, Teizen remained afloat by kicking around, until he reached a nearby wall of the cavern which he could place himself against with the aid of his chakra. Within moments of being released, Sannoto plummeted straight into the magma itself. He lost consciousness as his body sank into the fiery pits of the underworld, as his very body itself began to get lost in the ebb and flow of the convection currents. As Sannoto lost consciousness, descending deeper and deeper into the depths of the magma, so too along with it went his chakra signature. With no further trace of the Metal Seeker of Peace, Teizen defused his Byakugan, concluding the match over, this time for good. The redness to his flesh faded back to that of its original coloration a moment after. "Good riddance, old man," Teizen said, after having waited around a few minutes afterward to confirm the death of his opponent, "even despite being years past your prime, you still managed to force me all the way to the third gate, and for that I commend you. Were you even just a few years younger, well, then this may not have turned out so heavenly within my favor." Seeping chakra into his feet, Teizen bounced about from wall to wall, climbing out of the same crater that had formed as a result of his technique. ''Sannoto! In the corners of Sannoto's mind, he heard a voice call out to him. ''Sannoto! It was a familiar voice, yet so distant. Sannoto! The voice got louder, as it if were getting closer. SANNOTO DAMMIT! A hand fell upon his back. "Sannoto, wake the hell up, huh! You aren't going to let this kid beat the shit out of you right?" His mindscape lit up, revealing the man behind the voice. It was a child, perhaps no older than thirteen years old. His silver hair sparkled in the light, and his smile was no different. Though many would find him unrecognizable, Sannoto knew the face, the voice, and the child far too well. It was his best friend, Arata; he who perished in the Third Shinobi World War for the Senju. It was he whom Sannoto owed his life. "You better get your act together, Sannoto. This kid, he's hurting," Arata preached, slamming his fist against his chest. "''He needs you to help him realize the way. You can't do that if you die, you dumbass!" Sannoto did his best to speak, however everytime he opened his mouth to talk, the words clogged his throat. Why couldn't he talk? Why couldn't he tell his friend what he was feeling? Was it because he wasn't real? "Don't let that guy beat you, Sannoto, especially when Tai is fighting so damn hard to keep you alive. I mean, what more else does the damn spirit have to do to help you know? She already supplied more chakra to you, and on top of that, she's the one manipulating the damn metals in the magma to keep it burning your skin off too much," Arata informed. He pushed Sannoto away from him. "Now, get going! You can't join me just yet, old friend. It's not your time."'' A light engulfed his mind, and when Sannoto opened his eyes, he found himself sinking into the lava itself. With a rebel's yell, a surge of chakra exploded from his tenketsu, shaking the very cavern they occupied, as Sannoto rose to the surface of the magma, and into the air itself. Yet, refusing to be accompanied alone, the molten rock itself leaped with him. Leaping onto a wall, he scanned the area, unable to find the Hyūga anywhere in his sights. He stomped his foot against the rock, shrieking in frustration as the man escaped his unspoken wrath. Then, in it all, the hole in which he was sent down in, and the same hole he assumed Teizen used to leave, collapsed. The earth shook, and the lava below him erupted from the pits beneath him, engulfing the area in its fiery fury. The Death of Sannoto There was a knock on the door of the . Creaking open slowly, stood within the doorway, zipping up the rest of his flak jacket. "I have a message for the ," , holding out a sealed scroll. "Give it here," Guy said, taking it from him, "I'll see to it that she sees this." "Thanks." The messenger of view. Guy found Sayuri standing by the sink in the kitchen, where she was tending to a pile of dirty dishes. "He said it was for you," he explained, "why don't you take a break and take some time to yourself to look it over? I'll finish up with things around here." "Oh?" she smirked, "you're quite the handy man." She touched her hand to his face and accepted the scroll from him. "I'll be back later to check up on you, then." She sailed off into another room, leaving Guy with the greatest challenge he had seen in a number of years. This is going to be more of a challenge than Madara, he thought to himself. Looking over the letter, Sayuri could hardly believe her eyes. Her father... killed in battle?! There was guilt in her heart, for she felt somehow responsible for this. No, she was completely to blame for all of this. "My, my, Teizen-kun," she mused, tearing the letter apart, "I must admit, even I didn't expect for you to have become this powerful so soon. "I merely sent my father after you to test your progress, knowing full well that a gentle man like him wouldn't have it in him to finish you off. Hell, I was most certain he would have let you escape upon cornering you," she giggled. "But you've gone and killed him, what a shame. Oh, well. Sacrifices must be made from time to time, no? What I had in mind for you... yes, that may very well be accomplished much sooner than I had initially anticipated." Her trail of thought was disrupted by the sound of breaking glass. She hurried off back toward the kitchen.